1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a three-dimensional model search method, three-dimensional model search apparatus, three-dimensional model search program, and three-dimensional model search system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a static image which is digital data, and multimedia object data such as a movie, sound, and music have been used in various scenes.
For example, even with respect to data representing a three-dimensional object, in addition to CAD data which has heretofore been used, three-dimensional object data of merchandise, digital archive by the three-dimensional object data of archeological estates and art objects, and the like have actively been used.
These data are steadily increasing, and there has been a rising demand for efficient management of the data or for efficient search for the data required by a user.
To meet this demand, various techniques have been proposed. Even concerning a technique of searching for similar objects, a number of methods for calculating characteristics possessed by multimedia objects as feature values represented by numeric values to use multi-dimensional vectors constituted of these feature values have been proposed.
In searching for the similar object by the feature value, a subjectively close object is designated in the object desired as a search result by the user, and the feature value of this object is compared with that of the object registered in the database, so that the similar object can be searched.
For example, in “similar object search method and apparatus” described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-154149, a method and apparatus for outputting an object similar to an inputted reference object have been proposed.
Moreover, in “search method of three-dimensional body database and recording medium in which search program of three-dimensional body database is recorded” described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-41530, there has been proposed a search method based on similarity between an inputted three-dimensional body and a three-dimensional body stored in a database.